Mzansi Afrika

Forgiveness

The South African, film Tsotsi, got good publicity. What with the Oscar Committee's recognition and all. In France they're showing another South African one, though, that seems to have less hoopla around it. It's called Zulu Love Letter, and stars Pamela Nomvete, Mpumi Malatsi, Kurt Egelhof, Connie Mfuku and Sophie Mgcina. A husband and his wife are killed by the Apartheid secret police, she in the street, in front of her children and other people. The main protagonist witnesses this second murder, and has a hard time living with what she saw, especially that an old lady, 'Mè Tau, enters the story and is looking for her daughter, Dineo, who was murdered.

We all have to learn how to forgive. The critics are rather harsh with the film, perhaps rightly so, because the story-line of a movie is only a small part of the whole. I suspect that I will go see it anyhow, just because we all have to learn to forgive. The saying says that "it takes a strong person to say 'sorry,' and an ever stronger person to forgive." It does. But all those who can't forgive have a right not to. Such people will probably trash their lives and won't get very far with a lot of things, but they do have a right not to forgive.

Forgiving another human being for violating your child is almost beyond human capabilities. It is very difficult for me to stand behind an altar and celebrate the Eucharist and lead people in words of peace and reconciliation and forgiveness when I feel very far from that myself [www.telegraph.co.uk].

That's what The Rev Julie Nicholson, priest-in-charge of St Aidan with St George church, Bristol, said, after stepping down and giving up her function. She couldn't forgive and she couldn't go on telling others to do so, from behind the clout of the pulpit. So she quit. She has every right to do so. I can't repeat myself enough -- I will forever be amazed how and why, once Apartheid was over, South Africa did not sombre into blood-letting madness, fuelled by revenge and the inability to forgive. Chalk it off to gifted and dedicated leaders who were able to take advantage of the fatigue people had with violence and bigotry. Chalk it off to circumstances favoured by a very long history of colour supremacy which was really human weakness. Chalk it off to South Africa's at once real and incredible revenge against the odds.

The ethics of inter-racial adoption

Here in South Africa where we have so many Aids orphans and vulnerable children you get cases of white families that adopt black children. It's not common practice, but it's not unusual either anymore to see white parents with a black child or children. White lesbian couples, also adopt black children.

I sometimes wonder if inter-racial adoption is a good thing or not, I have certain reservations, but ultimately I do think it's a good thing. In South Africa there is not a strong culture of adoption among black families - this is something that child welfare organisations have been trying to change. So if people are willing to adopt, it is more than likely going to be a white family. Sometimes they adopt because they can't have their own children, but it's just as common to have white people who already have their own children to adopt a black orphan.

The main reservation I have about inter-racial adoption is that due to circumstances the black children that are adopted end up losing all contact with their own culture and heritage, they speak English and are unable to speak any African languages. I think this must be pretty hard to deal with growing up, and I'm sure that it would affect your sense of identity, and self-image and lead to a lot of painful questioning and soul searching.

On the other hand there's a part of me that feels it has to be better to lose your culture, but gain a loving family,  a degree of material comfort, stability and an education. Surely in this regard, it's better to have love and security and lose your black African culture and language. I don't know what the answers are, ideally it would be great if you could still have both - and are able to educate the child to speak their own language - maybe in school, or by a private tutor (and take lessons yourself). But even so, they wouldn't really be part of their culture. Unfortunately, the reality in South Africa means that it usually ends up being an either/or situation, and black adopted children end up not being able to speak their own languages.

Somehow though, growing up in a difficult family situation myself, I can't help feeling that love and security wins the day. If you grow up with love and stability, you have a better of chance of gaining the tools to deal with cultural alienation. The alternative is to grow up with nothing at all, no love, no education and a life of poverty.

Did we steal your brick making techniques?

Juan's comment: "I do not see why GP needs to make comments like, blacks were denied educational opportunities,in order to quantify his stance. How did whites deny them education? By tying them up and not allowing them to learn? Since when did it become our responsibility to educate other cultures? Since you advocate so strongly that your culture is equal to mine? Give me proof of where you invented something or built something that we cant or couldnt?

Or did we steal your brick making techniques and sand too? My arguments might seem like typical colonialist arguments, but history has very few instances that help YOUR arguments. We built these universities that you now claim as yours. Your arguments that AA is justified are all based on a belief that you would have built all this and achieved all this if we had never come here. Again history, nor the present, offer much proof to assist you." [Source]

Answering Juan's questions:
GP [Gauteng Blog] doesn't need to make comments like the one you suggest above. GP is under a moral obligation to at least think them. Not to quantify his stance but to prevent what happened from ever happening again. Apartheid South Africa denied black South Africans education by denying it to them. How else would you deny anyone education, when you're in a position of power? You say, "No." They did tie black people up, and banished some to an island, and did others in like only they know how, and not allowed them to learn, yes. In 1978 your folks spent $696 (4 306 Rands) on your education, as opposed to $45 (278 Rands) black parents spent on their child. Your responsibility has never been to educate other cultures, you're flattering yourself. The responsibility of people in power, anywhere, is see to it that everyone has equal access to schooling and to opportunity. No, my culture is not equal to yours. My culture is better than yours. Black people have built many things that white people didn't even dream of building, and vice versa.

You didn't steal our brick-making techniques, you nicked the damned bricks themselves. Your arguments don't seem in the least like colonialist arguments, they are the very definition of colonialist arguments. History says the African was enslaved abroad and on his native content by those wielding more brutal weapons. Of course you built the universities, if by "you" you mean the one who was in power then. Who else could have built them? Oliver Tambo in Tanzania?

I don't know if the black person would have built "all this" if the white person "had never come here." It's hard to say because by coming here the latter destroyed communities and lives and culture and families, and carted the healthiest black people back to Europe and South America to help build those places. However, I'm interested in finding out how you know for a fact that Africans couldn't have. This must sound familiar to you: "[We have] raised the life standards of the occupied inhabitants in all areas (infrastructure, water, employment, universities and hospitals) much more than they could have achieved in any other scenario. [Source]"

Talking to Juan:
Black people have undergone quite a lot at the hands of white people. White people have undergone very little at the hands of black people, all over the world, but especially in America and in South Africa. I've always been amazed at how the transition from minority government to majority government did not turn uglier. There's of course the question of farmers getting killed. While that tragedy cannot be overlooked, I'm happy that there has been no all out bloodbath. From 1652 when Jan Anthoniszoon Van Riebeeck arrived till 1994 when Mr de Klerk stepped down, nastier things than you can imagine were meted out to the black population. That's 342 years, Juan, or three centuries and 42 years. And you can't take 12 years (1994 to 2006) of practically no ill-treatment!

For more than two years, Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission listened as South Africans testified about atrocities committed by all sides under apartheid - abducted loved ones who never returned, torture in police cells, the formation of death squads and bodies burned beyond recognition as their killers enjoyed a barbecue on the side. [Source]

...it is in the economics of South Africa that the greatest crimes of apartheid are reflected, and where the greatest test of reconciliation will have to come. The country had the highest inequality in wealth distribution in the world -- 20 per cent of the population owning 75% of the wealth. [Source]

Just like you, I was scared of the swart gevaar, the bloodbath I thought was coming. But in the end you and I weren't afraid of the same swart gevaar. You were and are still scared of being swamped by the black wave of freedom. I was afraid black people would want to revenge. Well, in relative terms, they haven't. I still don't understand, however, how after more than three centuries of life under the weight of racism, the black South African doesn't beat the racist into a pulp, but instead reconciles with him. And it is the racist who now complains, after only 12 years of no discrimination against him. That's what assures me my culture is better than yours, Juan, and that by quite a stretch.

In your comment to my post you ask for "proof of where [blacks] invented something or built something that [whites] cant [sic] or couldnt [sic]" build. They've built an apartheid-free, bigotry-free, torture-chamber free, pass-law free South Africa, that's what. Want more examples? There's Thomas Jennings's invention.

Thomas Jennings was the first African American to receive a patent, on March 3, 1821 (U.S. patent3306x). Thomas Jennings' patent was for a dry-cleaning process called "dry scouring". The first money Thomas Jennings earned from his patent was spent on the legal fees (my polite way of saying enough money to purchase) necessary to liberate his family out of slavery and support the abolitionist cause. [Source] Let us not forget refrigerated trucks, the telegraphony, the McCoy Engine Lubricator (The real McCoy? It's him), the blood bank, the foil-electret microphone, and many other achievements. And the short shafted assegai.

I want to know why you're scared. You're not angry, as you purport to be. You're scared. Is it because you think the world as you knew it careened and went belly up, and now you have no landmarks? Is it because we "don't really [want] a solution to racism, it's too sweet, this freedom to blame other people for your own mistakes. While I can be racist I don't have to look in the mirror and see what's wrong with me, with my people. I can just find fault with the other side. This is how the human race resolves problems, it's always somebody else's fault. You know what the best part of that is? You. Right now you think I mean somebody else, you think I'm talking about the other race. [Source]"

Affirmative Action

I had lower expectations of blacks than of whites, and so I was willing to excuse poor service merely because the person was black [Source], so says Gauteng Blog, whom I frequent. But that can't be right because at another point Gauteng Blog clearly indicates that there must be "black financial advisors who are highly competent, and white financial advisors who are totally incompetent." So if there are, why would anyone have lower expectations when it comes to black people? That's the first thing that's wrong with this picture. The second thing that's wrong is that when a black professional is incompetent, Gauteng Blog attributes it to affirmative action, which is a system designed to hire minorities in order to eliminate unfair discrimination. Tell me what's wrong with the following:

Employers must make sure designated groups (black people, women and people with disabilities) have equal opportunities in the workplace. Designated groups must be equally represented in all job categories and levels [Source].

Having equal opportunities in the workplace is actually good, it is progressive, and it falls in line with the general direction of the eleven-year-old South Africa. However, the Gauteng Blog reader is led to believe that the workforce is gradually becoming incompetent because more blacks are being hired. That amounts to a bold statement, indeed. The purpose of South Africa's Employment Equity Act is to "achieve equity in the workplace, by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through the elimination of unfair discrimination; and implementing affirmative action measures to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups, to ensure their equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce [Source].

So what is unfair discrimination? Isn't any kind of discrimination unfair (to put it mildly)? When you have two equally qualified potential candidates before you, and you employ the one with the big tits, or with a penis, or with a paler skin, then you're practising unfair discrimination because those traits usually have no bearing on getting the job done. But in reality candidates with a paler skin do get hired more often than candidates with a darker skin, and this of course also happens in other parts of the world.

Show me a text that says blacks, women and the disabled can be hired even when they are less qualified than other candidates, and I'll cry foul with you. I have previously indicated that at the core I was against affirmative action, and I am, but it is essential, much as an anonymous curriculum vitae (which is being debated in France) is essential, until the playing field is level, until the prejudice wrought by Apartheid has been redressed, and until people are given jobs solely because they are the best qualified for those jobs.

Rant

I have the need to rant. I don't often rant, in fact I haven't ranted at all really in all the time that I've been  a blogger. But there is something that really, really pisses me off. Johannesburg is booming right now. Situated in the richest province in the country, people are flocking here from all over the country, and even the continent, in search of work. From poor rural people, and immigrants from other African countries who move into informal settlements, to aspiring middle class professionals who move into the suburbs, they're all coming to Johannesburg, Jozi, Igoli, City of Gold.

Now this in its self, I don't have a problem with. But, obviously because Johannesburg is expanding at such a rapid rate, this means lots of new housing developments, mainly in the form of closed off estates containing hundreds of housing units. They range from upscale multimillion rand luxury estates to more modest and affordable developments.

For the most part these developments are carried out by big companies who make huge profits, and all they are interested in is making money and to hell with the environment. Our so called green lungs are being threatened, ecologically important wetlands are being destroyed and hundreds of trees are disappearing from a city that is seriously in danger of losing it's reputation as being the largest man-made forest in the world.

The part that really gets to me, as that as ordinary citizens, it seems that we have no say over what goes goes on in our own city and our own public open spaces. There is a whole process that's meant to be followed in terms of letting people in the area being developed know about the proposed development, a proper Environmental Impact Assessment is meant to be conducted, there is meant to be a specific time period in which community members and affected persons can lodge their objections. How do you lodge an objection if you aren't properly informed about what's going on?

What's even worse is that there have been a number of environmental whistleblowers who have been taken to court  on various pretexts by the developers in order to shut them up, and these ordinary middle class people are being sued for millions of rands for trying to speak up which is their Constitutional right.

Another example,  I live on a hill a couple of blocks up from a main road which is a commercial road with restaurants and shops and blocks of flats. My bedroom window used to have a beautiful view over the sparkling lights of my suburb at night, until a huge illuminated advertising billboard was slapped up  on one of the blocks of flats. Because of the way my house is situated on the hill, and the height of the billboard, my entire view is now blocked by this ugly billboard which throws light into the room.

I called the City Council to complain and was told that the billboard had been granted the required permission and was legal AND why didn't I complain before the billboard went up. OK, I replied, how was I meant to know that a billboard was going to be put up until I actually saw it? Well, said the Council person knowingly, due process was followed in this case. A notice was pinned to the wall of the building 3 months before it went up, and it was advertised under Notices in the Classified section of The Star and The Beeld newspapers. Hell, how was I supposed to know to check the Notices, I never read the Classified section, and I seldom walk past the block of flats so I wouldn't have seen the notice anyway.

That is a totally ridiculous way of keeping the public informed, they should have to send out circulars to all residents within a certain radius of the proposed development, billboard or what ever else is being planned for public spaces that will affect the people living there.

I understand that Joburg is growing and houses need to be built, but it seems that there is no longterm town planning with foresight that will protect and preserve our environment. Surely the public should be PROPERLY involved and informed so that we can work together with the developers towards a longterm sustainable vision for our city.

It really pisses me off that we aren't properly informed and have no say in what happens!!!!

Tsotsi

The good news is that the homegrown South African film Tsotsi has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. Who the hell cares about Charlize Theron, she's lost her South Africaness - good for her, she's done amazingly well and it's a boon for us, but the Tsotsi nomination is far more exciting. I haven't seen it yet but will be going to as soon as I get the chance. It's been described as a gritty reflection of township thug culture with a pulsing kwaito soundtrack.

"Six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking.

Tsotsi is a gritty and moving portrait of an angry young man living in a state of extreme urban deprivation. His world pumps with the raw energy of "Kwaito music" - the modern beat of the ghetto that reflects his troubled state of mind.

The film is a psychological thriller in which the protagonist is compelled to confront his own brutal nature and face the consequences of his actions. It puts a human face on both the victims and the perpetrators of violent crime and is ultimately a story of hope and a triumph of love over rage.

"Tsotsi" literally means "thug" or "gangster" in the street language of South Africa's townships and ghettos. "Kwaito" is South Africa's answer to American Hip Hop."

Well done to all concerned - I'll be holding thumbs.

Condoms in the classroom

There's a whole big debate going on in the South African media at the moment about whether condoms should be made freely available in high schools. The Education Department has decided against this. Listening to a popular talk back radio show this evening on the topic, predictably most South Africans, at least those who called in to make their opinions known, agreed that condoms should not be provided in the classroom.

The main argument, surprise, surprise, was from the whole moralistic religious viewpoint that condoms encourage sex, and sex before marriage, especially among teens is bad. The other concerns were around sex and HIV/AIDS.

Of course in South Africa AIDS is a huge concern. It's more because of this that I would support the argument that teenagers should not be having sex, especially without using condoms. Where my concern lies, is that I'm not totally convinced that providing condoms causes people to go out and have sex. Teenagers are having sex anyway, so in light of the AIDS pandemic, wouldn't it be better to give them condoms?

On the other hand, a little voice whispers in my head, well what if you could buy drugs at your school canteen? If you had any curiosity to experiment, it sure as hell would make it a lot easier to go ahead.

I think it boils down to education and self-esteem. A lot of people experiment with drugs, and then either either leave it alone once their curiosity has been appeased, or continue to take the occassional drug here and there, no problem. But the one thing that just about every alcoholic and drug addict has in common is low self esteem - the drug of choice gives them a sense of confidence, temporarily removes their sense of being on the outside, and takes away that inner pain commonly described as the "hole in the soul". Girls who become sexually active from a young age, and continue to sleep around, generally suffer from the same problem, low self esteem and a longing to be loved and accepted.

I suppose there's also a gender aspect, boys who have sex are macho hero's, it's about proving your masculinity - so maybe having condoms freely available would make it easier for boys to have sex? And harder for girls to say no - "sorry no condom, no can do".

In an ideal world, teenagers would be properly educated about the emotional and health aspects of sexual intercourse. In an ideal world we would all come from loving families and be able to conduct our lives from a position of self acceptance and relative confidence. Unfortunately, we don't exactly live in an ideal world, and it's more the norm than the exception for people to grow up being emotionally wounded.

So, I really don't know what the answer is.

Slippery slope

Pity about Bafana Bafana in the African Cup of Nations, our national soccer team seems to be on a sad and steady decline. We were unable to score one single goal, that's not even embarressing anymore, it's humiliating! Lets hope that now between Safa, the PSL and the Sports Ministry something is done to save our pride and improve our soccer.

Even the Malawian national soccer coach is warning his players not to waste their time playing league soccer in South Africa despite the lucrative pay.

"Flames coach Burkhard Ziese has advised Malawian players to be more ambitious and dream of playing in more competitive leagues in Europe other than South Africa.Ziese was reacting to Southern African teams’ early exit from the on-going Africa’s biggest soccer showcase—the Africa Nations Cup.“In this part of the continent, the South African league is regarded as the most lucrative and competitive leagues but it is also gospel truth that it is on the decline."

There but for fortune

I hate beggars. Ok, I don't hate beggars. I hate the way beggars make me feel. We have so many beggars in South Africa, and one of their most popular begging spots is at major traffic light intersections. I pass about six sets of beggars on my way to work everyday. I say sets, because three of them consist of couples - a seeing person leading a blind person. It's rumoured that a lot of the blind beggars come here from Zimbabwe.

So there you are, waiting for the traffic lights to go green, and the beggars come up to your car for a donation. What do you do? You can't give money to all the beggars, all the time, everyday. So, do you ignore them and pretend you can't see them, because if they catch your eye it's so much harder to say no. But if you look right through them, without even acknowledging that they exist, not even recognising their humanity, it's as if your treating them worse than you would a dog. If you do look at them and give a weak sort of smile, it's as if you're raising their hopes of a donation. Usually I end up just shaking mu head "no" without looking them in the eye. I can't bear to see the look in their eyes that makes you aware of the lives they lead that they have to resort to begging on a street corner.

Then of course, once you've made it clear that you aren't giving any money, the guilt sets in, and you feel bad, like a greedy, horrible person with no compassion. Sometimes I do give, and another thing we do is when we have old jerseys I put them in the car and then give them to the beggars. It's not even a drop in the ocean.

Every time I see a beggar I feel so grateful for everything I have, and I am reminded of the Joan Baez song lyrics "There but for fortune, may go you or I". I wish I had it in my power to do something about their situation. It really sucks!!!

New local blog

African Voices and Visions is a new South African blog with a focus on Africa. What makes this blog special is that the author is a young documentary and filmmaker with a passion for Africa, and she travels widely through the continent. Her content is original writing with lots of photo's, and she documents some of the fascinating people that she's come accross like the Voodoo Pope from Benin and other interesting characters. These are the untold stories of Africa, giving insight into the side of Africa that the mainstream media media ignores. I look forward to seeing lots more on this blog.